Baylor Football Season Preview

Published 12:55 am, Thursday, August 11, 2011

In this photo taken Saturday Aug. 6, 2011, new Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, right, explains a play during NCAA college football practice in Waco, Texas. Behind Bennett is linebacker Brody Trahan, left.( AP Photo/Waco Tribune Herald, Rod Aydelotte) less

In this photo taken Saturday Aug. 6, 2011, new Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, right, explains a play during NCAA college football practice in Waco, Texas. Behind Bennett is linebacker Brody Trahan, ... more

Photo: Rod Aydelotte

Baylor Football Season Preview

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Baylor won't have any problem scoring plenty of points with quarterback Robert Griffin and its record-setting offense.

Now if the defense can get better, the Bears could be a big surprise in the trimmed-down Big 12.

"The defense is incredibly aggressive," linebacker Elliot Coffey said. "We know what we're doing, we have a scheme that everybody's fitting in to and everybody's excited about."

Baylor had a long-awaited breakthrough last season, with a winning record (7-6) and the end of a 16-year bowl drought that dated back to its days in the old Southwest Conference. But the ending wasn't all that great.

After getting their seventh win with a rare victory at Texas the last weekend of October, the Bears finished with a four-game losing streak in which they gave up 47 points a game. They lost to Illinois in the Texas Bowl.

The top five tacklers from last season are gone, including nose guard Phil Taylor, a first-round NFL draft pick by Cleveland.

Yet, that also means a fresh slate for the new coach.

"If you look at the defense right now, it's a complete overhaul," Bennett said. "This is a new defense, a new identity. I like the way they're working and I like their attitude."

Griffin and receiver Kendall Wright said the improvement in the defense has been clear since getting back on the practice field this month.

"They're playing more physical. It's taken a while to learn it but they're way better than in the spring," said Wright, who had a school-record 78 catches with seven touchdowns last season.

"They're doing a lot better job of just making things hard for us on offense," Griffin said. "These guys are players and players make plays. ... The corners are pressing up a little bit more, the safeties are taking more risks, and it's high-risk, high-reward. But that's how you make a good defense."

With 475 yards and 31 points a game, the Bears were on par with other offenses in the high-scoring Big 12 last season. But they also had one of the worst defenses, allowing 435 yards and 31 points a game.

Bennett came to Baylor after three seasons as defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, which was eighth in total defense last season and among the top 30 each year. Before that, Bennett was SMU's head coach for six seasons and defensive coordinator for Kansas State, TCU, Texas A&M, LSU, Purdue and Iowa State.

"He and I coincide so much on philosophy and belief in how to treat people, how to make people accountable," Briles said. "He's got one thing money can't buy, and that's experience. ... He's going to have an answer for everything. He's got a plan."

Coffey said the Bears will "blitz a ton" and have plenty of adjustments they can make to get everybody set in the right spot. They are really getting to know their new coordinator.

The hope is that Bennett can have the kind of success on the defensive side that Briles has had with the offense.

Baylor last season had 6,179 total yards and 405 points, which were both among their 22 team records.

Dual-threat quarterback Griffin is already Baylor's career passing leader (6,073 yards) after a single-season record 3,501 yards last season.

Griffin is only listed as a junior even though he is starting his fourth season and earned his undergraduate degree in political science last December. He got a hardship redshirt after his season-ending knee injury as a sophomore two years ago. He showed he was recovered last season when he accounted for 30 touchdowns (22 passing, eight rushing).

Baylor opens the season with a Friday night nationally televised game. They play Sept. 2 against former SWC rival TCU, which won the Rose Bowl to cap an undefeated season.

But the Bears aren't yet focusing on TCU, or the round-robin Big 12 schedule that will have them playing each of the other nine conference teams.

"We've got to get us down, that's what (Bennett) has been saying right now. Get in the classroom, get in the meetings, listen to your coach, get this defense down," Coffey said. "Coach has another saying, he says we're a million miles away from where we were, but we're still a million miles away from where we need to be."